years.

4,000 civic workers.

They tried it 40 years ago

. ‘ts published reports of
a meeting of Catholic

“laity” in Vancouver who
propose to clean-up the trade
union movement of false
leaders and false social theories
by a process of boring from with-
in, may have caused some misgiv-
ings for the fate of the trade un-
ions in some quarters.

But as one who saw the same
thing attempted about> 40 years
ago, right in this city, and knows
what happened to it, Iam not too
perturbed.

This latest effort*to hobble the
trade unions and destroy their
value to the workers, for that is
what it is, is being led by a man
who may have a good trade union
- record behind him, but if-he has
we have never heard of it in 42
He is T. M. Moran, one
of the vice-presidents of the B.C.
Electric.

Moran is very interested, of
course, in “cleaning up” the trade
union movement, and particularly
the Street Railwaymen’s' union,
no doubt. He it is who gave the
new crusaders their slogan “The
arch-bishop is our boss.” Quite a
revealing slogan for .a self-pro-
_ claimed democratic body. \

Of the committee elected at the
meeting to direct the boring in,
I only know one _ personally,

A good neighbor--good labor--policy

Condensed from a
broadcast by
EFFIE JONES

Se
; -iViC.. employees
among the most _high-
organized workers in
Pear city: The outside
union, inside union, police
and firemen bargain for nearly
se civic
workers are neighbors and
friends of yours and mine, and
their problems are our problems.

are

>: .

Frank Hunt of the Steam and
Operating Engineers. He was at
one time a -member of the Social-
ist Party of Canada; gravitated
from there to some spiritualist or
Theosophical outfit and now ap-
pears to have performed another
back somersault and landed in
the welcoming of Holy
Mother Church.

arms

It must seem strange, however,
for Ray Guthro, whose union, the
International Typographical
(ITU), has been on strike for 27
months against the scab-produced
Vancouver Daily Province, to find
himself following the leadership
of a vice-president of one of the
most grasping, anti-labor, mon-
cpolist corporations in B.C. and
—-almost certainly—a subscriber
to the Province. One man, Had-
dock, of the IWA, is known to
have a very poor record as a
trade unionist. None of the mem-
bers of this committee represents
any union; they represent only
themselves. Missing from the list
are Pat Sullivan and pb) tage: Stee
Conroy.

But Vancouver workers have
known how to handle such con-
spiracies against the labor move-
ment in the past and will this
time, too.

About 40 years ago, a Catholic

shall see to it that there is no
favoritism in promotion. I shall
not allow a man to be promoted
from a desk in the city hall to
the desk of .a superintendent,
responsible for directing large
numbers of men much more ey-
perienced than himself. I shall
end that state of affairs whereby
a man works 10 or 15 years in one
city hall department, while an-
other man, with half his length
of service in another department,
moves up to an important posi-

“tion,

Wnen I am elected mayor I
shall make some changes which
these fine men and women have
long sought, and which they de-
serve. For instance, I shall use
my office to give these workers a
union shop—which they have
been trying to get for many years.

_ Take the outside union; they
have been a Trades Congress af-
filiate for 31 years, and have
shown themselves to be a re-
sponsible group of citizens who
have given us splendid and un-
stinting service. A man at 31
_ years of age is old enough to as-
sume the major responsibilities
of life. A union of this age, which
the city recognizes and enters
into a contract with, is old
enough to have the union shop.

And why have our civic work-
ers been denied the union shop?

Because successive administra- _

tions, composed of big business
stooges, have been able to carry

on their anti-union practices with-
out interference. What amazes me
‘is the fact that our civic workers
have been so patient—that there
has been no work stoppage since
the general strike of 1919.

When I am elected mayor I settled across

_ In 1929 and in 1945 the city car-
ried on exterisive, and expensive,
surveys of all civic jobs and the
rates for these jobs. In each case,
a seale of wages was brought
dewn, which was finally adopted
by council, with some modifica-

tions. To this day, hundreds of

civic workers are dissatisfied with
the differentials for tradesmen
and semi-skilled workers at pres-
ent in force, as a result of the
1945 report.

“ This year, the city engaged the

services of a personnel manager,
at five thousand dollars a year,
and established him in elaborate

_ offices with an extensive staff. |

During this year’s wage nego-
tiations, the city refused to dis-
cuss differentials with the civic
workers, while admitting that
many wage categories were out
of line. Instead, they pointed out
that the personnel department
will make surveys, and recom-
‘mendations, and that the respec-
tive unions will have the oppor-
tunity to make representations to
council before these recommen-
dations are adopted.

When I am elected mayor I
shall insist that such questions be
the bargaining

s

‘

propagandist launched a move-
with a somewhat similar
purpose. His name was Scanlon
and he called his new anti-labor
body “Peace in Industry.” His ob-
jective was to eliminate strikes
which, he maintained, only cost
the workers great losses in wages
and cut into the profits of the em-
ployers’ investments.

ment

He had been making a living
with this scheme in the U.S. and
thought Vancouver would be a
likely place for another “peace”
campaign. :

Arriving here, he linked up with
Father O’Boyle, the outstanding
local Catholic cleric of that time,
and a meeting was staged in the
old Parish Hall on Richards.
Street. In the chair was a leading
exploiter of labor of the same
type as this Moran, R. P. MacLen-
nan of Mac & Mac’s.

Last week’s meeting was a
hand-picked affair, but. Scanlon’s
meeting was open to the public.
Father O’Boyle introduced Scan-
lon and dealt with the need for
such: an organization in a city
that was plagued with industrial
strife, without mentioning, how-
ever, the causes of the industrial
strife, low wages and long hours
on the one hand and exorbitant
profits on the other.

As Scanlon rose to tell the good

table, with the union on one side
and the city on the other. The
present personnel managed play-
ed a prominent part in the recent
negotiations, assisting the city to
make the best possible deal, that
is, to pay the lowest possible in-
creases in the face of the highest
rise in the cost of living. Is it any
wonder that the unions are some-
what suspicious of this gentle-
man?

The personnel department
should assume its proper func-
tions, advising the council and
senior administrative officers on
matters of personnel manage-
ment, and I shall not allow it to
interfere in collective bargaining.
e

When the late Mayor McGeer
was elected mayor in 1936, the
late Mayor Jones, who was then
city clerk, lost his job. When I,
am elected mayor, no loyal or
competent servant of the public”
will be fired, demoted or discrim-

_inated against because his poli-

tics differ from mine. But I shall
insist that he continue to serve

the people well, with competence

and loyalty.

As ‘mayor of Vancouver, my
door will always be open to the
representatives of our civic un-
ions, and to any civic worker who
has a problem to discuss. While I
have constantly fought for muni-
cipal reform and advocated get-
ting the most taxes from those
who can best afford to pay the
most, I have always supported the
legitimate demands of organized
civic workers. I do so because I
know that well-paid civic work-
ers, enjoying good job conditions,
are stable, cooperative public em-
ployees, representing the best pos-
sible investment of the taxpayers’

money.
\

news. about his “Peace in Indus-
try,” a regular storm of heckling
broke loose from all parts of the
hall. When the chairman assured
the audience that there would be
an opportunity for questions and
discussion they listened patiently
until he was through. Then the\
reason for the patience became
obvious.

The leading speaker for the
Socialist Party at that time was
Harry Fitzgerald, popularly
known “Fitz.” He had been
born, raised and educated in the
Catholic Church. A: member of
the audience
that, since they had heard Scan-
lon’s side of the question they
should ask Fitzgerald to make a
contribution. : ;

as

rose and moved

The platform gang had no

chance to counter that move in >

view of the temper of the audi-
ence. So Fitz went to work on
Scanlon’s “Peace in Industry.”
He made a good job of it too,
tearing all Scanlon’s specious ar-
guments to tatters to the satis-
faction of most of the crowd.

During the question time that
followed, pandemonium broke
loose and MacLennan proved him-
self to be a poor general in the
conduct of a meeting by accept-
ing a motion to nominate and
elect a committee of five to carry
on the organization. work for
“Peace in Industry.”

\

@ 4 &

To this committee was elected
Father O’Boyle, R. P. MacLennan
and three others, all of these
socialists of some kind.

One was Billy Taylor of the
Socialist Party of Canada, a roof-
tarrer, the least respectable-look-
ing man in the hall. He wore the
same clothes when dressed up as
he did when tarring roofs, but
mentally he was no slouch and
kad _ recently been the leading
figure in a free speech fight that
stirred the Vancouver labor move-
ment,

Another was Moses MacGregor,
also of the SP of C, and a member
of the Carpenters’ union, an old-

‘time Yukoner of the Trail of ’98.

The third was an old worthy

named Bill Rawlins whose work-

ing days were over, a member of
the Socialist Labor Party who
talked DeLeonism whenever he
could get anyone to listen to him.

The election of this committee
showed Scanlon and his Catholic:
sponsors how much chance they

had to establish a “Peace in In-

dustry” outfit in Vancouver and
they stalled over setting a date
for the initial meeting of the
committee. —

If pandemonium prevailed be-
fore the election of the commit-

tee, what followed the stalling

tactics can only be described as a
Donnybrook. The Catholics in the
hall, sore at what they recognized
as a defeat for their pet scheme,
resorted to fists and soon the
meeting became a free-for-all.

In the midst of the melee, one
of those militant socialists whose

By BILL
BENNETT

militancy often led him to jump
off the soap-box and place a neat
“one-two” on the snoot of an in-
terrupter at an open air meeting,
“Yorky” Henderson by name,
stood up on a chair and in a sten-
torian voice that could be heard
above the milling antagonists,

moved that “this meeting to es- _

tablish peace in industry now ad-
journ by singing “Peace, Perfect
Peace.” And that was the end of
Scanlon’s “Peace in Industry.”

Times have changed since then.
The Catholic Church has learned
a lot of lessons, It is the only
church that butts into the trade
union movement. The losses it has
suffered in countries like Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
slavia, make it the more deter-
mined to use its might where it

Yugo-

still has any. It is in earnest and

will have to be stopped.

In New York, the Association
of Catholic Trade Unions is lined
up with every reactionary ele-
ment and has already been de-
nounced for that. It is the same
wherever. it gets a measure of
control. Its concern is to sap, not
to strengthen the struggles of the
unions,

Catholic — have
learned in practice the benefits of
union organization, increased,
wages, improved ‘working condi-
tions, shorter daily hours and
shorter work-week, will not be
cozened by the oily promises of
people like the vice-president of
the B.C, Electric even if instruct-
ed by the archbishop. The Quebec —
Catholic workers who a» few —
weeks ago, denounced Ludger

workers who

Dionne, M.P., as an exploiter of

labor, are proof of that. They
have learned the hard way what
the unions are to them and will
not allow the Morans and the
Scanlons to destroy them. .

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 29, 1948—PAGE 4

a